While consumers may be reading daily newspapers less, one morning habit hasn’t changed: the commute. Now, the Tribune Co.’s innovation and technology unit wants drivers and bus riders to listen to audio versions of its stories.

Newsbeat, the first major consumer product by Tribune Digital Ventures, will use human readers and text-to-speech technology to create audio versions of the stories, according to Shashi Seth, president of the unit. Taking a page from Pandora Media, the application personalizes stories according to user interests and other signals. It even uses mapping tools to anticipate how long the audio should play before the commute ends.

Tribune is stepping up efforts to find more ways to attract customers as news habits change. With Newsbeat, the company is trying to tap into the growing demand for digital entertainment when users are in their vehicles. Apple and Google — whose operating systems dominate the smartphone market – have unveiled new efforts to get their software into cars.

“The timing is really good,” said Seth, who worked previously at Yahoo! and Google. “What we’re aiming for is not only the mainstream, but also the really long tail.”

In addition, Tribune recently bought Gracenote from Sony, giving it a music service that already works with many leading in-dash car systems.

The Newsbeat application will have access to more than 7,000 stories daily from Tribune newspapers and partners services, he said. This includes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Baltimore Sun. The service, which will be supported by audio ads, is available in the Android and Apple App Store.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2014-03-20-tribune-co-targets-users-whod-rather-listen-to-stories-than-read-them/feed/0Green Throttle’s Post Google Pivothttp://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2014-03-13-green-throttles-post-google-pivot/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2014-03-13-green-throttles-post-google-pivot/#commentsThu, 13 Mar 2014 04:00:42 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=11985Green Throttle Games Chief Executive Officer Charles Huang is shifting his company’s focus to developing content for Web-connected televisions, after selling assets of the original business to Google. The Santa Clara, California-based company has a staff of five, a third of its size before the Google transaction, Huang said in an interview. Green Throttle’s investor […]

]]>Green Throttle Games Chief Executive Officer Charles Huang is shifting his company’s focus to developing content for Web-connected televisions, after selling assets of the original business to Google.

The Santa Clara, California-based company has a staff of five, a third of its size before the Google transaction, Huang said in an interview. Green Throttle’s investor base is still intact, the co-founder said. The company raised $6 million 15 months ago from Trinity Ventures and DCM.

Huang, who previously helped create the Guitar Hero franchise, started Green Throttle in 2012, as a way to play graphics-rich games on devices powered by Google’s Android operating system. His vision of selling a controller that connects to mobile gadgets and links to high-definition TVs was undermined as Apple, Samsung Electronics and other hardware makers started encroaching on his turf.

“The amount of interest and pace of interest from not just one or two but half a dozen, maybe more, companies came faster than we had anticipated when we started the project,” Huang said. “To this day, the content side of games is still a large missing component.”

While the company stopped making its application available in November and no longer produces controllers, current owners can still use them to play games.

With the employees that remain, Huang said he’s looking for ways to make compelling content, including titles for connected devices other than Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation. He said no firm decisions have been made. Separately, Huang said he’s working on a project called Indigo 7, a company focused on developing hardware, like new types of speakers.

Tim Drinan, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, said that Matt Crowley and Karl Townsend, the other two co-founders of Green Throttle, are joining the Web-search provider. He declined to comment on the terms the transaction or say what they will do as part of the deal.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2014-03-13-green-throttles-post-google-pivot/feed/0Twitter Ranks 5th in Engineer Pay Behind Google and Yahoo: Studyhttp://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-10-17-twitter-ranks-5th-in-engineer-pay-behind-google-and-yahoo-study/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-10-17-twitter-ranks-5th-in-engineer-pay-behind-google-and-yahoo-study/#commentsThu, 17 Oct 2013 20:02:50 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=11448Plenty of Twitter employees can look forward to becoming paper millionaires when the company goes public, but for now, engineers at Google and Yahoo! take home bigger paychecks on average. Twitter ranks fifth in engineer pay with an average of $124,863 in annual salary, according to a study by job-search website Glassdoor. Stock-based compensation was […]

Plenty of Twitter employees can look forward to becoming paper millionaires when the company goes public, but for now, engineers at Google and Yahoo! take home bigger paychecks on average.

Twitter ranks fifth in engineer pay with an average of $124,863 in annual salary, according to a study by job-search website Glassdoor. Stock-based compensation was not included in the study.

Juniper Networks, the second-biggest maker of computer-networking equipment, paid its engineers the highest salaries with an average of $159,990, the study said. Juniper was followed by LinkedIn, Yahoo! and Google on the list. The ranking includes companies where at least 50 software engineers had reported their salaries to Glassdoor between October 2012 and the end of last month.

Twitter, which has been growing its workforce ahead of an initial public offering, has said recruiting talented engineers is among the potential risks it could face in the future. The company added 300 employees in the third quarter, putting its total at 2,300.

The social-networking company is in the most competitive market for software engineers. They’re paid $111,885 on average in San Francisco, which is more than anywhere else in the U.S., according to Glassdoor. At the top of Twitter’s engineering team, Senior Vice President Christopher Fry made $10.3 million last year in total compensation including salary, stock and bonuses, the company said in its prospectus.

After its IPO, Twitter risks losing talent when longtime employees cash out their stock. But Twitter brainiacs itching to buy a new Tesla probably won’t find a better salary at Apple or Facebook. Apple ranked sixth, paying $233 less than Twitter on average, and Facebook ranked ninth, with $121,507, the study said.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-10-17-twitter-ranks-5th-in-engineer-pay-behind-google-and-yahoo-study/feed/0Are VCs Investing in Their Own Disruption?http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-09-23-are-vcs-investing-in-their-own-disruption/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-09-23-are-vcs-investing-in-their-own-disruption/#commentsMon, 23 Sep 2013 17:00:05 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=11316Venture capitalists are known for backing startups that are disrupting established industries. Typically that doesn’t include their own. But Silicon Valley’s elite firms are finding it hard to ignore a growing threat to their once proprietary deal flow. Venture investing — like seemingly all businesses — is gravitating to the Web, and at the center […]

Naval Ravikant of AngelList speaks onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 at The Manhattan Center.

Venture capitalists are known for backing startups that are disrupting established industries. Typically that doesn’t include their own.

But Silicon Valley’s elite firms are finding it hard to ignore a growing threat to their once proprietary deal flow. Venture investing — like seemingly all businesses — is gravitating to the Web, and at the center of the movement is Naval Ravikant, the co-founder of AngelList.

Ravikant, 39, a longtime startup investor, has spent three and a half years building AngelList from a niche site matching founding teams and wealthy individuals to a buzzy investment tool that’s chipping away at Sand Hill Road’s dominance.

And now, thanks to some of those legendary firms, AngelList has a war chest from which to invest in new products. The company said today that it raised $24 million from 116 investors, including Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, as well as prominent angels such as Yuri Milner, Mitch Kapor and Max Levchin.

“In the past it was kind of like a mafia,” said Wesley Chan, a partner at Google Ventures in Mountain View, California, the biggest investor in the round. “Folks had secret access to companies and it was all relationship-based. Naval is at the forefront of disrupting and democratizing access.”

So why did Google Ventures invest in its own potential disruption?

“I’d rather be on the right side of history than the wrong side,” Chan said.

Since its launch, more than 1,300 startups have raised a total of $200 million on AngelList, including alternative-taxi service Uber and e-retailer Wanelo, Ravikant told investors and reporters last week at The Cavalier restaurant in San Francisco. That’s still a tiny sliver of the industry: Venture capitalists invested $27 billion in almost 3,800 deals last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

Ravikant doesn’t expect to put venture firms out of business. After all, top-notch funds have hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal and experienced investors and technologists on staff that most startups will always need. Rather, he’s focused on eliminating inefficiencies, like the amount of time and money early-stage companies have to spend on setting up meetings, traveling to pitch sessions and finding and paying lawyers.

“The issue is – how do we scale investing,” Ravikant said.

For now, AngelList isn’t making money. The biggest opportunity to do so, according to Ravikant, is in recruiting. Some 37,300 job candidates — largely developers, designers and product managers — have posted profiles on AngelList, and more than 3,000 people have been hired on the site. Considering that traditional recruiters and online options like Hired.com, formerly Developer Auction, charge thousands of dollars per successful placement, Ravikant expects a healthy business to emerge.

That’s good for venture capitalists because it’s one more service that helps their companies. And it’s one more way that Ravikant can play nice with the big boys.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-09-23-are-vcs-investing-in-their-own-disruption/feed/0‘The Inside Scoop’ Media Podcast: Apple, Google, Intel and TV Industryhttp://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-07-19-the-inside-scoop-media-podcast-apple-google-intel-and-tv-industry/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-07-19-the-inside-scoop-media-podcast-apple-google-intel-and-tv-industry/#commentsFri, 19 Jul 2013 19:51:16 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=10834For this week’s episode of “The Inside Scoop”: We talked to Peter Kafka, who covers the media industry for technology blog AllThingsD, about the tension between traditional television programmers and technology giants such as Apple and Google, which are looking to deliver TV programs over the Internet. Kafka suggests one solution that has Google or […]

There’s a growing rivalry between traditional TV programmers and tech giants over the delivery of content via the Internet.

For this week’s episode of “The Inside Scoop”: We talked to Peter Kafka, who covers the media industry for technology blog AllThingsD, about the tension between traditional television programmers and technology giants such as Apple and Google, which are looking to deliver TV programs over the Internet. Kafka suggests one solution that has Google or Apple snapping up rights to the NFL. Bloomberg News media reporters Alex Sherman and Edmund Lee host.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-07-19-the-inside-scoop-media-podcast-apple-google-intel-and-tv-industry/feed/0Google Getting Along Well With Apple, Schmidt Says Amid Detentehttp://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-07-11-google-getting-along-well-with-apple-schmidt-says-amid-detente/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-07-11-google-getting-along-well-with-apple-schmidt-says-amid-detente/#commentsFri, 12 Jul 2013 01:39:52 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=10740The cold war between Google and Apple is thawing. Eric Schmidt, the search provider’s executive chairman, said the companies are getting along better after they clashed over mobile software on the iPhone last year. Schmidt, who left Apple’s board in 2009, said he has “a lot of respect for Apple,” while speaking to a group […]

Eric Schmidt, the search provider’s executive chairman, said the companies are getting along better after they clashed over mobile software on the iPhone last year. Schmidt, who left Apple’s board in 2009, said he has “a lot of respect for Apple,” while speaking to a group of reporters today at Allen & Co.’s annual conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Google and Apple have become growing rivals in recent years as their products increasingly compete in areas such as computers, mobile phones and online services. Google’s Android software, which it provides for free to handset makers, now commands more than 70 percent of the smartphone market while the iPhone has less than 20 percent, according to IDC.

The rivalry intensified last year when Apple stopped preloading Google’s mapping software onto iPhones and instead opted for its own service. Apple also quit shipping phones preinstalled with Google’s video-sharing service YouTube.

“We’re sort of in constant, constant business discussions on a long list of issues,” Schmidt said. “These are two proud, well-run, different companies.”

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-07-11-google-getting-along-well-with-apple-schmidt-says-amid-detente/feed/0Fullscreen Plots YouTube Video Expansion With New Fundinghttp://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-17-fullscreen-plots-youtube-video-expansion-with-new-funding/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-17-fullscreen-plots-youtube-video-expansion-with-new-funding/#commentsMon, 17 Jun 2013 13:03:19 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=10498Chernin Group LLC, Comcast Corp.’s venture arm and the digital unit of advertising firm WPP PLC are investing in Fullscreen Inc., a startup that helps YouTube video creators make money from their clips. Fullscreen, which supports more than 15,000 aspiring video stars making up about 2 percent of YouTube’s page views, will use the investment to expand […]

Chernin Group LLC, Comcast Corp.’s venture arm and the digital unit of advertising firm WPP PLC are investing in Fullscreen Inc., a startup that helps YouTube video creators make money from their clips.

Fullscreen, which supports more than 15,000 aspiring video stars making up about 2 percent of YouTube’s page views, will use the investment to expand in the U.S. and abroad.

Begun in 2011 by George Strompolos, a former manager at Google Inc.’s YouTube, Fullscreen creates analytics software for online-video makers and helps sell ads to major brands including McDonald’s Corp. and General Electric Co. The company, which keeps a portion of the revenue generated by ads, is seeking to benefit from a boom that’s gathering steam as more people use handheld computers and high-speed wireless-Web connections to create and share online video.

“I had the crazy idea that I could build a media company on the Internet with YouTube as our starting point, in partnership with thousands of creators around the world,” Strompolos said.

The company has about 160 employees in its offices at Culver Studios in Los Angeles, a historic movie lot where “Gone With the Wind” and “Citizen Kane” were filmed.

Among the most popular video creators working with Fullscreen are Lindsey Stirling, a dubstep violinist whose “Crystallize” video has been viewed more than 62 million times; and Devin Super Tramp, an extreme-stunts filmmaker whose “World’s Largest Rope Swing” clip has more than 20 million views.

Fullscreen also manages the official YouTube channels for NBC Entertainment, and is seeking to push into creating its own lineup of Web videos, Strompolos said.

“In the world of independent video, creators are expected to do everything,” he said. “We try to take as much of that off of their plate so that they can continue to be creative.”

The company plans to use the funding to expand beyond the U.S., where about half of its content creators reside, Strompolos said. Fullscreen plans to open offices in Brazil, India, Mexico, Japan and Russia over the next two years, he said.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-17-fullscreen-plots-youtube-video-expansion-with-new-funding/feed/0Apple Buys More Than Airtime With Latest Adhttp://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-11-apple-buys-more-than-airtime-with-latest-ad/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-11-apple-buys-more-than-airtime-with-latest-ad/#commentsTue, 11 Jun 2013 22:55:33 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=10424When Apple’s “Think Different” campaign came out in 1997, the ads didn’t sell a specific product, but an idea: The company wanted to change the world, just like Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr. and the other “crazy ones.” It was a clever and successful approach — and one born out of necessity. Apple needed […]

When Apple’s “Think Different” campaign came out in 1997, the ads didn’t sell a specific product, but an idea: The company wanted to change the world, just like Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr. and the other “crazy ones.”

It was a clever and successful approach — and one born out of necessity.

Apple needed to “buy some time” for Steve Jobs, who had just returned to the almost-bankrupt company, to come up with some breakthrough new products, TBWA/Media Arts Lab Chairman Lee Clow said at a recent conference. His agency developed “Think Different” along with Apple’s most notable ads since the 1980s.

In a way, Apple’s latest commercial, which debuted yesterday at the developers conference, needs to accomplish the same thing: Buy the company some time.

Amid an aging product line and fierce competition from Google’s Android and Samsung, the only new products on sale now following CEO Tim Cook’s keynote yesterday are MacBook Airs and AirPort wireless routers. The new Mac Pro and iOS 7 won’t be out until fall. None of that, or talk of Apple getting into watches and TVs, will slow down the Cupertino company’s rivals.

Similar to “Think Different,” the newest ad, which was also developed by Media Arts Lab, re-introduces the brand in a highly emotional way. Although products are shown, they take a backseat to the reactions of people using them. The ad’s emphasis is on the experience.

And then there’s a telling line in the narration: “We spend a lot of time on a few great things.”

We’ll see if it’s worth the wait. If the “few great things” don’t live up to the expectations of consumers and investors, no ad campaign will help a brand that not so long ago seemed infallible.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-11-apple-buys-more-than-airtime-with-latest-ad/feed/0Amazon Is Quietly Building an Ad Empirehttp://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-04-amazon-is-quietly-building-an-ad-empire/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-04-amazon-is-quietly-building-an-ad-empire/#commentsTue, 04 Jun 2013 12:00:04 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=10390Google and Facebook tend to make the most noise in digital advertising. Amazon.com is a bit of a silent giant, and the online retailer is starting to stir. Last year, Amazon’s advertising revenue increased 46 percent from 2011, reaching $610 million, according to a report published today by researcher EMarketer. As Amazon’s ad efforts ramp […]

Google and Facebook tend to make the most noise in digital advertising. Amazon.com is a bit of a silent giant, and the online retailer is starting to stir.

Last year, Amazon’s advertising revenue increased 46 percent from 2011, reaching $610 million, according to a report published today by researcher EMarketer. As Amazon’s ad efforts ramp up, the company’s worldwide ad revenue are estimated to increase another 37 percent this year to $835 million, the report said.

“Our financial disclosures are included in our quarterly earnings statements, and advertising revenue is reported in the ‘Other’ revenue category,” Kristin Mariani, a spokeswoman for Amazon, said in a statement.

While Amazon declined to discuss the performance of its ad unit, the company’s “other” revenue last year totaled $2.52 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from public financial statements. It’s a small portion of the company’s $61.1 billion in overall revenue, but the “other” category was up 59 percent from 2011.

Amazon serves ads on its websites and through its advertising network. The company has been ramping up its ad business recently. Earlier this year, Amazon let developers serve ads to Android apps as well as to Kindle devices.

Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and AOL accounted for nearly two-thirds of U.S. online ad spending last year, according to EMarketer. Amazon accounted for $450 million, a relatively tiny slice, the researcher said.

The bulk of Amazon’s ad revenue comes from the U.S., and it could reach $1.1 billion by 2015, EMarketer said. That would make Amazon’s projected growth to be more than double that of the overall U.S. online ad market.

]]>http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-06-04-amazon-is-quietly-building-an-ad-empire/feed/0Elon Musk on Tesla Merger Prospects: Apple Has ‘a Lot of Cash’http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-05-09-elon-musk-on-tesla-merger-prospects-apple-has-a-lot-of-cash/
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2013-05-09-elon-musk-on-tesla-merger-prospects-apple-has-a-lot-of-cash/#commentsThu, 09 May 2013 04:01:45 +0000http://blogs.edit.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/?p=10243(Updates Tesla’s year-to-date stock price change in lead and Musk’s estimated net worth in 10th paragraph.) Tesla Motors is on a pretty good run this year with the stock up 105 percent and a first-ever quarterly profit posted yesterday. That’s led many investors to wonder whether acquirers might come knocking soon. “That’s one of the […]

Tesla Motors is on a pretty good run this year with the stock up 105 percent and a first-ever quarterly profit posted yesterday. That’s led many investors to wonder whether acquirers might come knocking soon.

“That’s one of the possible outcomes, I suppose,” Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. There have been “occasional discussions” with companies, though Musk declined to identify which ones.

Musk is what some in Silicon Valley might call a serial entrepreneur. He sold PayPal to EBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, which made him a multimillionaire. In addition to his Tesla duties, he’s also the chairman of SolarCity and the CEO of Space Exploration, the Hawthorne, California-based rocket maker known as SpaceX where we conducted our interview last week.

While Musk said an acquisition isn’t expected to happen soon, he was willing to spitball some hypotheticals with an editor and me. What about another car company? Daimler and Toyota Motor are already Tesla investors.

“From the perspective of a large [automaker], Tesla just seems very expensive,” Musk said. “How many cars do we make? What’s our market cap? It seems nutty to them.”

OK, how about Apple?

“They do have a lot of cash,” Musk said coyly. “I’d guess it would come from outside the auto industry. It would be a buyer with a very large cash position.”

Musk won’t be able to sell Tesla until the company repays its debt to the U.S. Energy Department, which it expects to complete by December 2017. Rather than seeking a sale, Musk’s priorities for Tesla over the next few years are to increase sales of Model S sedans, start mass production of the Model X and bring out an electric car priced close to $30,000 that most families could afford.

“I’ve said from the very beginning, from the creation of Tesla, that our goal is to create a compelling mass-market car,” Musk said. “I would not consider stepping away from Tesla until we’re there. We’re several years away, obviously.”

Musk is worth $4.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and has been building cred on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. He told me his company has been talking with Google about teaming up on driverless cars. Investors seem to believe that Musk is the person to accomplish the company’s lofty goals — despite the occasional gaffe on Twitter or baffling declaration of war with the New York Times.

“Every now and then I sort of stick my foot in my mouth,” Musk said. “Given some of my crazy tweets, I’m not sure you could tell if my account was hacked or not.”